


A Tale of a Decade and a Night

by QueenCommander



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Conspiracy theorist Keith!, Definitely an AU, Fantasy, M/M, Matt and Allura are here, Rated Teen and Up for swearing and possible nudity, but not a lot, fantasy au?, i'm really bad at tagging things, it is not described, my keyboard is shit, there is a mention of previous abuse of a character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-07 19:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11630700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenCommander/pseuds/QueenCommander
Summary: "Shiro, I'm telling you. I'm not crazy. These dreams mean something. There is something in those woods and I'm going to find it. I know I can."~~~~~~~~~~~~Aka, Keith has strange dreams and tries to make sense of them by going deep into the woods.*Rated Teen and Up for swearing, possible nudity, and mention of past abuse*





	1. Little Nightmares

**Author's Note:**

> There's a part at the end that may be a little hard to read for mobile users, but I've checked on my phone and it should be fine.

Keith woke up in a cold sweat. He looked over at his clock before sitting up. 3am.

He tried to calm his beating heart before gathering his thoughts. What was that nightmare? Could it even be considered a nightmare? It was so strange, but not necessarily scary. A dream then? But it felt so real... Was it a memory? But that couldn't be possible.

He shook his head. It was just a dream. It was late and he needed to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keith stretched out his arms and yawned as he walked into the kitchen, where breakfast fast already waiting for him. "Mornin'." He yawned out as he scratched at his face.

"Sleep well?" Shiro asked as he sat down at the table to eat.

"I guess I did. Until I woke up from a weird dream."

"What kind of weird?" Shiro asked before shoving some scrambled eggs in his mouth.

"Well, I don't remember much. But I was younger, and I remember seeing another boy. Something tells me that he needed help. But I ran away instead. Then I woke up at... Three in the morning?"

"Spooky."

Keith rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to all out because of a dream Shiro. It was just a dream."

Shiro laughed as he put down his fork. "Alright alright. But you've done it before."

"Hey! It was one time and that crow was suspicious!"

"It was a crow!"

"It was leading me somewhere!"

The two stopped and stared at each other before laughing.

"Okay, I'll admit, that was a dumb one," Keith said.

Shiro smiled softly and cleaned off the rest of his plate. "Yes, it was. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get ready for work."

"Have fun being a manager and dealing with idiots."

Shiro chuckled as he walked out. "I'll do my best."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Keith looked around at his surroundings. It was so erie, yet, so familiar. The dark abandoned buildings, the moonlight shining past the clouds. The sobbing of a child. Wait._

_Keith turned his head to see a small boy a short distance away. He looked hurt._

_Keith tried to call out to the boy, but found that he had no voice. Come to think of it, he was smaller too. Like a child. Was this a dream?_

_Keith looked up when he heard sobbing stop, only to be replaced by what sounded like someone stomping around the abandoned buildings._

_"Where'd you go little brat? Do you think you can hide from me? Because I_ will _find you."_

_Keith gulped. That didn't sound good at all. Whoever that was, was certainly after that boy. He needed to do something and fast._

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keith's eyes shot open suddenly. Did he have that same dream again? He turned his head to the clock. 3am. Weird. That was the same time as last night.

He sighed and closed his eyes to go back to sleep. It was just a dream. Sometimes dream reoccur. It's no big deal. Right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It after was the seventh night in a row of the same dream, waking up at the same time as well, when Keith walked into the kitchen where Shiro was making the usual breakfast. Was there some point to it? If so, why? And how was it recurring like this?

"Oh no," Shiro said as he turned to look at Keith. "I know that look. What's it this time?"

"Shiro, I keep having the same dream at the same time of night. It's gotta mean something."

"Keith, it's a dream. It keeps happening because you're obsessed and keep thinking about it. Just relax and find something else to chance."

Keith sighed as he sat down at the table. "Okay. Maybe you're right. I'll give it a shot. I mean, I'm not _loosing_ sleep over this."

"Good. Now, eat up. A balanced breakfast will help you get your brain up to speed. And don't forget you promised Pidge you'd help her with her... Alien project?"

"It's not about aliens. Its about sending coded messages into space in hopes of getting feedback from- Okay it's about aliens."

Shiro chuckled at that. "At least you're being honest."

Keith rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Don't you have a store to go manage?"

"Nope. Got the day off."

"So what are your plans then?"

Shiro shrugged. "Hit the gym and do some shopping. We're low on food."

"Sounds like... You."

"Yeah yeah." Shiro stood up with his already empty plate. "Well, I'll be headed out soon. Shoot me a text if you need anything. Or just shoot me. Either one is fine."

"Very funny Shiro," Keith mocked.

Shiro shrugged as he walked out. "Well, it was worth a... _Shot_."

"Shiro I swear to god!"

Shiro could be heard laughing as he walked upstairs to his bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keith walked onto the Holt's back porch where Pidge was sitting in front of her hand built computer.

"Any hits?" Keith asked.

Pidge shook her head. "Not yet. It's been acting up for the past week too."

"Have you run di-"

"Yes, I've run diagnostics every night. The entire system is fine, but something is still interfering. I can't figure it out. Not even Matt can."

"Weird. Have you tried to pinpoint the interference?" Keith asked as he looked over the coding on the screen.

"I've tried, but it doesn't seem to stay in one place."

"Wait, I think I may see a pattern." Keith pointed at some numbers on the screen. "These keep repeating. What does it mean?"

"Those? That's when it automatically sends out a signal every night. And when it crashes, apparently."

"What time is that then?" Keith looked at Pidge inquisitively.

Pidge looked at him. "Three in the morning. Why?"

Keith stared at her for a moment. "I've been waking up every night at that exact same time with the exact same dream."

Pidge looked at her computer in thought. "Hmm... Normally I'd say that these two thing happening at the same time is just a coincidence, but... For a whole week? That's just not possible. One time, maybe, but a whole week... Whatever is effecting my computer, is effecting you too."

"Then we have to find it. But how?"

Pidge hummed in thought. "I've got it! I know I can at least track part of it. Maybe there's a pattern to it too? I'll get Matt to help me upgrade the system so that we can at least see where it shows up the strongest. It'll take some time though... Those dreams aren't bad, are they?"

"No, not bad, just... Strange. I've gotten used to it."

"Alright. Well, you'll need to deal with them a little longer. If this continues to happen anyway." Pidge began packing up her things to take inside. "I'll start on this right away. You go do... Whatever it is you do."

Keith nodded. "Just let me know what I can help you with."

"Will do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Keith stood in the same spot as usual at the dream's start. This time, this time he would do something different._

_He immediately began looking around for the injured boy before moving towards him slowly. He attempted to whisper, surprised to find that he actually could this time._

_"Hey, are you okay? My name's Keith. I can help you. What's going on?"_

_The boy's sobbing slowly stopped as he sat up and turned to Keith._

_Keith was a bit confused. He knew that the boy was facing him, but he couldn't see his face. He knew the boy obviously had one, but it was like his mind was blocking it out for some reason._

_"Do you need... Help...?" Keith could feel himself begin to shake. Something wasn't right. In fact, very very wrong._

_"There you are you little brat!"_

_Keith attempted to turn around, but woke up from the dream instead._

Keith groaned as he looked at the clock. Once again, 3am. What did it mean? Why couldn't he see that boy's face? Why was he so young in the dream? Who was that man?

Keith rubbed his temple in frustration. There had to be something more to this. He was able to change course in the dream, so it was a lucid one. But why? Was it possible to try other things? Would the dream change drastically if he did? Well, there was only one way to find out. And that was to wait for the next one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Keith took a deep breath and began looking for the boy, but was surprised to see that he was gone._

_"A͈̤re̴͍̭ ̤̗͕͝ỵ̷̱͈̖̪̫o̴͎̣͇̘̮̺u ͢h̪e̞̘ͅr͞e̠ ̼to͍̙̳̖ ̮ͅh̭̖̮̬̹̱e͖̟l̺̭͉p͎̫ ̡m̛͕̤e̶̻͇̻̻͈̳?"_

_Keith froze in fear. The voice was unlike anything he'd ever heard. It was like something out of a movie, where a spirit possessed someone and echoed as they spoke through them. Keith gulped before turning to look behind him, surprised to see the boy from before. And like before, he couldn't see the face, except for glowing blue eyes this time._

_"A̝̟͇̤r̦͢e̬̘͉̤̩̥͕ ̰̯̗͓̟̫y̙͇ou̴̺̭̲ ̺̯̫h̗̖e͎r̩̙͟e ͎̣̙͓̪̻t͈̗̬͕̩̰̫o̡͙hḙ̡ļp̠͘m̩̻̻͓̘e͕͖͟?" the boy asked again._

 

_Keith gulped again. "Yes...? I mean, I want to help."_

_The boy simply stared at Keith for a bit. "F̺i̡̫͇n̷͓͖̖͇͉̜̰d̫̪͇̣ͅ ͏͇͕̫̞͎͎̰m̴̸̪̗̠̭̺̺͝ͅe̼̦̭̼."_

_Keith blinked in confusion. "What?"_

_"F̟̪̬̙̞̮i̺̬̹͓n͏͎̫̣d̪̜̞̼̕ͅ ̳̭̻̫̻̮̣̻̱͞͝m̴̸̪̗̠̭͝e̼̦̭̼." The boy repeated. "F̬̻̘͉̖̤͠ͅi͔̖n̵̟̲̻͓̱̥ͅd ̪̩͖̞͉̫͓m̗̫̲̝͉̦e̙.̙ ̵̜̮̻Fi̲n̟̳͎̮͎͖̕d̳͇̩̳͕̝ ͡m̝̯̜̰e̯͓͖̘͠. ̣̰͖̭͈͕F҉͇̤̹̺̭̝̬-͏̜f̙̺-̕f̞̰̤į̩n̠͡d̶̙̗̪ ̜͉m̫̦̲͞e̟̺̩̦ͅ.̥̖̲̖̝ ̳͍͡F͍̮͓i̛̳̻̹̙̰n̯̼̥d̯̗ m̺̥e̼͈ḛ̶̰̘ͅḛ͟e̮̗͠ͅe͇͢.̟͈̪"_

 

_Keith began to freak out when the boy's unearthly voice seemed glitching out. "Hey! Cut it out! Stop doing that! Stop it!"_

"STOP IT!" Keith shouted as his eyes shot open.

He slowly sat up in his bed, shaking and breathing heavily. It was then that he noticed Shiro in the doorway.

"Hey man," Shiro said quietly. "Everything alright? You were tossing around pretty hard for a moment there."

Keith looked down at his shaking hands, trying to process the dream. "I... I don't know."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Keith shook his head. "Not right now. In the morning?"

"Okay. Talk over breakfast then? I'll make your favorite for you."

Keith wanted to smile, Shiro had always done something like this for him when he freaked out, even as kids, but... He just couldn't seem to. "That would be nice. Thanks."

Shiro nodded. "There's some Z-Quil in the bathroom if you need any."

"Thanks Shiro."

"You sure you'll be okay?"

"Yeah. Just gotta calm down. I'll be fine."

Shiro seemed a bit hesitant, but left Keith alone to try and sleep again.

Keith laid back down in his bed and stared at the ceiling. What did it mean? Find me? Find who? But most importantly, why?


	2. A Russian and a Raven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you read, I'd like to thank bubleboobo and klanceful on Tumblr for prereading the first chapter! They are wonderful people! I'd also like to give a shout out to my friend Azra, whom I dragged into the Voltron fandom two days before S3 and binged all of it with them. You're a great bro, bro.

Keith rubbed his eyes as he sat down at the kitchen table while Shiro put breakfast on plates. He hadn't had the best time going to sleep after the nightmare. He glanced up when Shiro placed a plate of food in front of him.

"One plate of dairy free chocolate chip pancakes with sliced strawberries and lactose free vanilla ice cream on top. As requested."

"Wow, you really went all out this time," Keith commented as he picked up a fork to start eating.

Shiro shrugged as he sat down. "What can I say? You had me really worried. I couldn't even go to sleep myself."

Keith stopped the bite he was about to take. "You were really that worried?"

"Yeah, you seemed pretty scared Keith." Shiro sighed and looked down at his plate. "What happened exactly? If you want to talk about it that is."

Keith took a few silent bites of pancake before finally speaking. "There was a kid, and he was talking to me, like he was possessed, saying to find him. And he wouldn't stop."

"Oh, like a horror movie?"

"Sort of. But... Just weird now that I think about it. The dreams never changed until now. I don't know why."

Shiro shrugged. "Well, that's more of your thing than mine. But if you think there's some way I can help, then I'm willing to. Within reason of course, I don't want a repeat of the last time."

"Hey, it's not my fault. How was I supposed to know there were dogs on that property?"

"I dunno, maybe the big 'beware of dogs' sign I had pointed out?"

The two stared at each other sternly before they both cracked smiles and began to laugh.

"Yeah Shiro, those tiny Pomeranians were _so_ vicious," Keith laughed.

"Hey! Those things ripped my favorite pants!"

"Not my fault you chose to wears those."

The two continued to laugh at the memory, as well as talk about all the other situations Keith had gotten them into back in the day. For the morning after a nightmare, it was rather nice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keith was walking to the front door of the Holt's home after receiving a text from Pidge that said _Get here. Now._

It had been abrupt, but Keith knew that she probably had something exciting to tell him.

He had barely raised his fist to knock on the door when it opened suddenly and he was pulled inside by Pidge.

"Keith, you have got to see this!" Pidge said as she dragged him upstairs.

"Can you tell me what it is at least?"

"Oh, right. Okay, so, you remember how I said I'd try and track where the interferences? Well, I managed to pin point five spots that seem to repeat themselves and well... Take a look." Pidge woke up her computer to show Keith a map on the screen.

"Wait... Is that...?"

"Yup. That's a pentagram. Well, a star anyway, but most-likely a pentagram."

Keith stared at the screen in contemplation. "Wait, how big is that area? And where is it?"

Pidge pulled out her own personal map of the area. "We're here," Pidge pointed out before drawing on the map. "And these are the points. I'd say it's a good ten mile diameter."

"Geez... So... What does that mean?"

Pidge shrugged. "No idea. But before you showed up, I started doing some research about strange occurrences in the area, and apparently, there used to be some witches that lived in the area. I didn't get very far into the story before you showed up though. So it might be bogus, but I'll keep looking into it. You should too, it might be interesting to learn about stories from the area."

Keith was deep in thought. Was this really connected to his dreams? The last one was a little demonic, so maybe it was? But why him? It was messing with Pidge's stuff, so why not her? Was he the target and Pidge's equipment was just a side effect? He continued to try and think of why this could be happening, but he just couldn't think of anything. Until he had an idea.

"Hey, Pidge, what if we pull an allnighter tonight? Try and track this? Maybe we can find whoever, or whatever, is doing this."

Pidge thought about it for a moment. "We could try. If anything, we can get closer to an answer."

Keith nodded in agreement. "I'll gather some supplies and come back tonight then."

"Sounds like a plan."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This was a terrible plan," Pidge said with a yawn.

Keith looked at his watch. Midnight. "Just three more hours."

Pidge dipped her hand into a bag of chips as she stared at her monitor. "Yeah, well I hope something shows up sooner than that."

"What are you guys looking for?" A voice asked from behind.

Pidge swiveled around in her chair. "Matt! You're home late."

Matt chuckled. "Yeah. Customer came in late demanding that I fix her computer. But she got in just before closing so... I had to. Anyway, what are you guys doing?"

"Waiting for those anomalies that I was telling you about," Pidge told him.

"Oh, so, it's an allnighter?"

"Yup!"

"So... That means Keith will be here the whole time, right?"

"Matt," Keith said, not bothering to look over. "Just go over there. Shiro has nothing planned."

Keith still wasn't looking, but he was pretty sure Matt's face was fairly red. He was right.

"I'll uh, just see you guys tomorrow then." Maty turned and walked inside, probably to get some things before leaving the house.

Pidge burst into laughter once she knew Matt wouldn't hear. "Okay, okay, this was totally worth it. You were so blunt Keith!"

Keith shrugged. "Just told him what he wanted to know. Besides, I'm sure Shiro will enjoy it too."

"Eh. At least we know he won't be asleep if we need him."

"Or at least we assume we won't be asleep. I've come home and seen him passed out in the living room with Shiro before. Didn't bother to ask them why, so don't ask me."

Pidge smirked. "Yeah, that sounds like Matt, especially if it was a long day."

Keith let out a yawn and stretched his arms. Through his mid-yawn squint, he thought he saw something walking towards them from the woods.

"Hey, Pidge, can you see what that is?"

"Huh?" Pidge looked up to see what Keith was talking about. "Oh hey, I haven't seen that cat in a while. It's just a cat that stops by sometimes. She's pretty friendly."

Keith watch as the cat walked towards the house and onto the deck where he and Pidge were stationed.

"No way," Keith's eyes widened in almost disbelief. "Is she a Russian Blue?"

Pidge shrugged. "Heck if I know."

Keith bent down and let the cat sniff his hand before petting it. "Wow, she's really soft. How come I've never seen her before."

"Beats me. You're the cat lover around here. Not that I hate cats, I just seem to like them as much as you do."

Keith smiled softly as the cat let him put her in his lap. "I wish I could have one, but Shiro's landlord won't allow pets."

"Yeah, that does suck, doesn't it."

"It does, a lot. Especially for Shiro. I think he could use an animal companion."

"Mhm..." Pidge hummed.

They let the conversation drop and continued waiting around for something, anything.

It was soon nearly 3am and Keith could barely keep his eyes open, but he had to. It was so important that he did. His eyes were closed for only a moment before he snapped them open and looked at the time. 3am. And no dream. That was weird.

He rubbed his eyes and looked over to Pidge, who was no longer there. "Pidge?"

He looked around, she had probably just gone inside for something.

_I should probably stretch my legs out. Keep myself awake. That's probably what Pidge did too actually._ He thought as he began to stand from his seat and stretch out his arms and back. Sitting like that for hours couldn't be good in any way for the body.

"Huh, I wonder where that cat went. She was just here." Keith muttered to himself as he looked around.

It was then that he noticed an unusually large raven resting on top of Pidge's computer, watching him. Which was odd, since ravens often weren't seen at night. Or 3am for that matter.

"Why are you out this late?" Keith quietly asked as he moved closer to the raven. "Where did you even come from?"

The raven cawed at Keith before picking up Pidge's nearby cellphone and flies a short distance away from Keith.

"Hey! Bring that back!" Keith quietly shouted-not wanting to wake neighbors-and went after the raven, who simply just kept flying a short distance away every time Keith got closer.

He growled in frustration, this raven was just playing games with him, but he needed to get Pidge's phone back. "Look, raven, bird, whatever, if you want to play, fine. Just give back the phone."

The raven tilted it's head before placing the phone on the grass and the flying off into the nearby woods.

Keith walked over and picked up the phone. But when he turned around, he had no idea where he was. There was no way he'd gone _that_ far from the house.

"Pidge? Pidge are you nearby? I don't know where I a-" he stopped suddenly when he felt like he was being watched. He turned his head slightly to look behind. "Hello?" He called out. "Anyone there?"

He slowly turned around completely and was shocked to see who was behind him.

Standing at the edge of the woods, was the little boy from his dreams.

_"Y҉̩̬̩̟̻̭̹o̺̝̩͉u̗̹'̹̳̘̯̯̝r̟̖̙͇͎̯ͅe̼̰͚g̞̻ett̬̜i̳̹n͉̤͓̫̲̻͇g̮̥̣͡ w̞̞͍̝͇͕͔a̫͈r͏̯m͍̞e̬̝r̟̠̟̤."_ The boy said.

 

"What? Getting warmer to what? Wait, how are you here? I'm not..." Keith's eyes widened as he realized that he was, in fact, in a dream.

_"Y̴o̩̗̳͈u̧'͏͔̳̬̥r̮̞̮͡e̢̤̘ ̨̣̰g̹̗̘e̵͉̥̪ͅt̤̖t̺̯i̠̬̫n̤g̨̙̤̞̠ ̝̲̕w͓̪̦̰̲͔ͅa̳̬̲r͝m̢͈̘̹e̢̦̰r."_ The boy repeated.

"You know what? No. No! I'm not going to play your games! Find someone else to torment with this sick game of yours! I've had enough!"

The boy simply stared. _"O̭̥͖̝͍̳̥͡n̞̖̫ḻy̮͈͡ ̫̟̳̘͓͝y̛̯̜̥̫̰͓o̤͉̙̗̹u̷̱ͅ."_

"No. I'm not going to listen to you." Keith covered his ears and closed his eyes, trying to will himself awake from this nightmare.

_"H̗̻͟a͈͖̤͡s̟̗ ͓t̤̙͖̙͔̘o-͖̲̱̪ ̶̭͉̞̙̺͍̬Yọ̜͈̯u̱͇͖̙͍.͇ ̶̹͇͉O̟͢n͎̼̭͠ly̰̫̬͎̤͕̟ ̠͖y̛̙̜͉o̤̲̣̭̯͎ͅu.̞̹̭̳͡ ̯̻̼̦͟M̨͇͕̠u̪͍͠st̳̮̱̘͓͔̣-̱͉͖̹ ͍Y̡̮-̞͖y̮̬̟̩̫-̠̖̪̟͈͉̲͠y̰ͅou̞͕͕.̗̲ ̙̫͕̯̲̥H͠-h-̲̖͈h͎̰͓̦̫̱͍e̹͎͇l͓̥p.̘̤̘̺F̟̯̖̼i҉̙̘̮̝͈n͝d̗̼͓̩.̥͖̣ͅ ̣̝̫̤͝H̲̘̙̯̦̖ͅe̮̹l̫͡p̢.̯͉̭͕͉͔̲"_

 

"No! Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!" Keith opened his eyes suddenly to see that he was back where he had originally been. Sitting on the back deck with Pidge, who was watching him worriedly.

"Hey, Keith, you okay?" Pidge asked.

Keith had to take a moment and gather his thoughts before responding. "I don't know..."

Pidge cautiously placed a hand on his shoulder. "You should go home. Get some rest."

"But we haven't-"

"Keith, you're tired and probably haven't had a proper rest in... Who knows how long. I can handle myself. Go home."

Keith looked down at his hands. She was right. He really hadn't slept well the past week. He needed to relax.

He sighed softly as he closed his eyes. "Alright. Just, let me know what kind of information you get."

"Will do." Pidge offered him a smile and fake salute before he began walking over to his house.

**Author's Note:**

> Zalgo text is hard to work with....


End file.
